PRO FOOTBALL;Giants Release Walker, Shedding Third Veteran

In a move that wasn't a complete surprise, the Giants yesterday thinned out their crowded backfield and added more room under their salary cap by releasing Herschel Walker.

The two sides failed to agree on reducing Walker's $1.1 million salary and providing him with a more definite role in the offense.

Walker, who signed a three-year, $4.8 million contract last year, is the third veteran released by the Giants in the last two weeks (safety Vencie Glenn and tackle Doug Riesenberg were the others). Last season was Walker's least productive in a 10-year National Football League career. He carried the ball only 31 times for 126 yards and caught 31 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown.

Walker's release after one season seemed to indicate that the Giants' front office and coaching staff weren't on the same page. But General Manager George Young said in a statement yesterday that that was not the case. Young said that when the Giants signed Walker as a free agent, the team did not anticipate drafting Tyrone Wheatley in the first round or the development of the rookies Charles Way and Keith Elias and did not think it would be able to re-sign Rodney Hampton.

The Giants signed Wheatley to a five-year, $5.2 million deal. They kept Hampton by matching a six-year, $16.45 million contract offer from San Francisco in February. Once they did that, the 34-year-old Walker became expendable.

"The situation was simple," said Peter Johnson, the agent for Walker. "They had too many running backs and they were all high-priced running backs. There is only one ball and they couldn't accommodate all of them."

Johnson said he and Walker asked the Giants to release Walker as soon as possible so that the running back would have a good chance to catch on with another team, but they waited until mid-June to do it.

"This is something they could have done as soon as they re-signed Hampton," Johnson said. "The handwriting was on the wall."

Walker did not return a telephone call to his home in Dallas.

Two weeks ago he said he was willing to take a pay cut if the Giants would give him a more definite role on the team. Johnson said that when Walker signed it was with the understanding that he would be the backup to Hampton, play in third-down situations and be used as a receiver out of the backfield.

None of those roles materialized. Walker was heralded as a bigger version of the multipurpose back David Meggett, who complained that the Giants could not find a way to accommodate his versatility in their offense. He signed with New England as a free agent in 1995.

During one three-game stretch late last season, Walker touched the ball only once from scrimmage. In a Dec. 10 game against Washington he was in only on kick returns. After the game he said he could not recall another time in his career when he had not had a play from scrimmage.

Expressing his frustration at the end of the season, Walker said: "All I've done is watch, and I am through with watching. You can take that any way you want."

Walker left the University of Georgia after winning the Heisman Trophy in his junior season and signed with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League in 1983. He played three years for the Generals and rushed for 5,562 yards and 54 touchdowns. When the U.S.F.L. folded, he played four seasons with the Cowboys, and later for the Vikings and Eagles. Last season he became just the 19th player in N.F.L. history to rush for more than 8,000 yards (8,122) and just the sixth to gain 15,000 all-purpose yards (15,881).